Universities face multimillion pound fines after evidence suggested they broke a government-imposed cap on student numbers by up to 22,000 places after a 10% surge in applications.

Fears that thousands of well-qualified students would be prevented from starting a degree this year seem to have been avoided after universities defied an order to restrict places.

Official data, seen by the Guardian, reveals that as term started this week universities had accepted 35,000 more students than last September, despite an order that only 13,000 more be allowed. Vice-chancellors face being fined for every student admitted over the official limit.

There has been unprecedented pressure on the admissions systems this year with 60,000 extra applications, fuelled in part by older applicants seeking to do a degree during the recession. The last official figures show a 10% increase in students overall but a 19.5% rise among over-25s.

Ministers capped the number of extra places after discovering a £200m black hole in their university financing.

The decision opened up the debate over whether the government had abandoned its long-standing commitment to expand higher education.

The place figures, from the official university applications service Ucas, are dated 21 September – the first day of freshers' week at most universities. The numbers reveal that some students would still be disappointed – the 10% increase in applications was met by an 8% increase in acceptances. But the fears that, according to some estimates, 60,000 students would be barred from starting a degree did not materialise.

Anthony McClaran, chief executive of Ucas, said: "The number of students admitted this year is pretty well in step with the number of applicants. Although there was great fear in advance of clearing that thousands of students would be turned away, in practice that doesn't seem to have happened.

"Certainly the fears that large numbers of well qualified students would be turned away don't seem to have been realised."

Some 43,539 applicants have got a place through clearing compared with 35,000 at the same point last year – despite McClaran's own earlier predictions that there could be as few as 22,000 in clearing.

He acknowledged that there could still be places left to fill, but he was unable to say by how much the cap had been broken. The media furore around the A-level results and admissions could have added to pressure on students to confirm places early, he said. "To some extent the anxieties in the media about the cap in England would have exacerbated the natural urge for students to get things settled."

McClaran also revealed that registrations for university applications for next September are already up 14% on last year – with about 150,000 already signing on to start their applications 12 months ahead of freshers' week 2010.

Universities have been told that if they over-recruit their funding will be clawed back. But the government has not said how much the "fines" will be as it does not know the extent of over-recruiting or the costs it faces to finance the grants and loans of the extra places.

It comes as figures show that record numbers of non-EU students are opting to study in the UK. Research by the vice-chancellors group Universities UK this week revealed that the number of overseas students has doubled in a decade. Fees for non-EU students are unregulated and they are now the biggest sources of funding for universities after the government.

Les Ebdon, the vice-chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and chair of the Million+ university thinktank, said all his courses were full and he believed he had kept within the limit. "It's still early days to say what it will be like on 1 December when the official count is taken," he said. "It will be nail-biting time because of the fines they are threatening. It's not fair to fine universities for educating students – particularly in a recession. At the very least the government should come out and say what they intend to do."

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said that while it was welcome students were not denied places, it did mean they would be unfunded at university and that could affect the quality of their degree.

"The government should hang its head in shame that it hasn't funded enough places and created this situation," he said. "The current predicament could have been avoided had the government taken the right decision and provided universities with the right number of places."

The Higher Education Funding Council for England said it was too early to say whether the cap had been broken.